Of A Broken Heart
by littledaybreaker
Summary: GSR. Character death x2. Angsty. Updated 914
1. Chapter 1

There's a hole in the wall, broken jars on the floor, and Sara crouched nearby, holding her right hand in her left.

"What happened?" Nick asks her, bending down to her level, though he, as a good forensic scientist, knows exactly what happened.

"Punched the wall."

"Lemme see."

"No."

"Come on, Sara. It might be broken."

"Doesn't hurt."

"There are tears in your eyes."

"Fucker." He knows it's not directed at him.

"Who…"

"Now Catherine'll…Hate her, fucker…why?" She balls her left hand up and he pulls it back. _Grissom._

"Let's go to a hospital," he suggests delicately.

"Doesn't hurt," she hisses.

"Do you want an infection?" he asks slowly, the way one might ask an insouciant child.

She stands, still grumbling, and allows him to guide her towards the door, then to his truck. Her eyes are wildly sad, he notices, like a child's, a child who has never truly been sad before. He touches her hair, which has gone frizzy, and she pulls back with an angry look. They drive the rest of the way in deafening silence, the only sound being Jethro Tull singing "Aqualung" quietly in the background.

* * *

As suspected, she has fractured two bones in her hand. The too-smiley ER nurse says, mothering, "Best watch your temper, sweetheart," and Nick has to invest all his strength into not punching a few of her too-white teeth out.

Back at Nick's, he pours her a cup of juice, which she weeps into for several minutes until he guides her into the spare bedroom, which is when he finally gives in and cries himself; not for Grissom so much as the pain Sara must be feeling.

* * *

Catherine comes by the next morning with Lindsey in tow. By this point, Sara is curled into a ball on the spare bed, muttering and sobbing.

"Is there anything either of you need?" Catherine asks Nick gently once Lindsey and Sara are out of earshot.

"What I need," he replies slowly, "is for Sara to be okay. And there's only one way to make her okay, and that ain't happening."

Catherine nods and fixes his hair. "Call if you need me."

* * *

Almost twenty-four hours exactly from the moment he found her in Grissom's office, Nick leaves his house to go to the grocery store. He's gone for less than 45 minutes, and when he comes back, Sara is gone from his house.

They find her body almost 24 hours later in Grissom's apartment, on the couch like she was sleeping. Doc Robbins says that it might be the first ever case of "dying of a broken heart". It doesn't seem right to call it an overdose.


	2. Chapter 2

A few weeks later, it's back to business as usual at the Las Vegas crime lab, sans two people. The replacements feel temporary to Nick, like Sara and Grissom had coincidentally taken a holiday at the same time.

One evening, he is on his way to work when "Aqualung" comes on the radio and he is forced to pull over to the side of the road, crying. When the song ends, he wipes his eyes on his sleeve and changes the radio station—Showtunes. It doesn't matter, though—he just can't risk hearing "Aqualung" again.

He arrives at work five minutes late, but his puffy eyes tell stories and Catherine asks no questions, simply hands him his assignment, careful not to assign him to the suspected suicide. He isn't quite ready for that yet.

Work, for him, has become little more than a mind-numbing diversion, something to do other than watch ESPN and cry. Catherine had given him time off, of course, as much as he needed. He took two weeks and went back when he was convinced that he had no feelings for Sara other than concern and friendship, but the Nicky Stokes that found Sara Sidle on Gil Grissom's office floor that night was not the same Nicky Stokes that walked back in the door two weeks later. Catherine knew that, along with Sara, a part of him had died in that apartment that night.

Months pass, then years, and eventually, it is like Sara and Grissom were never part of the crime lab at all. Everyone adjusted to the new guys, redeveloped schedules. Everyone except Nick.

When he got a transfer nearly four years later, he accepted it without a moment's hesitation. That Wednesday, Greg and Warrick drove him to the airport to say goodbye. He was bound for Philadelphia. He could reinvent Nicky Stokes, maybe get married, have a few kids, settle down. Forget about the girl who left him behind. Forget about it all.

It worked for a while.

Five years after moving to Philadelphia, he his on his way home from work to see his fiancée and new baby boy when Aqualung comes on the radio and he realizes the date: ten years since Sara. He turns the car around and heads towards Las Vegas. He'll explain later. There's unfinished business to be completed.

A/N: By popular request.


End file.
